The Fourth Brother
by WannabeSlytherinPrincess
Summary: The many points of view from all four brothers about Jack. What they think of him, what it was like growing up as the four Mercer brothers, and up until the end with an alternate ending.
1. Becoming Jack Mercer

**Bobby**

I could remember the day Jack officially became a Mercer. It was sometime in the middle of April, and Jack had been with us for about six months as a foster kid. I teased him a lot, but it's always been because I care about him. I'd been around plenty of other foster kids before, but Jack was different. Not only did I see him as my real brother, but so did Angel and Jerry. He completed the family before he even developed our last name. I never really knew too much about his past, but when I first saw Jack, I knew he had a troubled up-bringing. He had cuts, bruises, and plenty of scars just about everywhere. I remember feeling extremely angry, even though I had no idea how he got them. But of course, I had plenty of my own experiences with bad foster homes. In fact, every foster home I ended up in was no good. I was always either beaten or neglected; most likely both. Although, it didn't matter who it was that did it. Anyone cruel enough to hurt someone like Jack, couldn't possibly be any good. Jack was only eleven when he came to Evelyn, and he looked very innocent. He was a shy, skinnny little white boy. And now that I think back to it, he was a little awkward, too. He always had a hood over his face and he never looked anyone in the eyes, except for Evelyn once he finally got used to her. She had always liked to look people in the eyes, so Jack had to get used to it at some point; whether he liked it or not. Not to mention, he always had either a sweatshirt or a long-sleeved shirt on. If he was forced to wear a short-sleeved shirt, he always had his arms crossed. He had these big blue eyes that seemed to bore a hole into your face whenever you actually got to see them. He had almost the same hair as he does now, only a little lighter shade of blonde that was also shorter.

It took him a while to get used to everyone, but eventually Jack came around and got comfortable around us. He would no longer jump over every little noise, and he started wearing short-sleeved shirts more often. He would never admit this now, but he actually used to knock on one of our doors whenever he had a nightmare and didn't want to sleep by himself. I always felt bad for the kid; he'd knock on my door in the middle of the night crying, looking up at me with those big bue eyes of his. I'd ask if he had a nightmare, and a simple nod was just enough for me to let him stay with me for the night. It could take up to a half hour for him to calm down, but once he did, he fell asleep faster than an alcoholic could get drunk. That may sound dumb, but it was true. Jack had a tendancy of coming to my room over Jerry's, Angel's, or even Ma's. Truth is, I got a little jeilous whenever he chose Angel or Jerry over me. Not because I thought I could comfort Jack better than them, but because Jack was my little brother and I just wanted to make him feel better myself. The kid never had it easy, and our lives were almost similar. So in a way, I felt very connected to him. To say the least, Jack was like a younger version of myself. Just maybe a little more rational; and smarter. But to be honest, not as smart as he could have been when he was around thirteen, and I was eighteen. I picked the lock to his room one day to tell him to turn the music down, and I found him with a kitchen knife and huge gashes across his wrists. It amazed me that I had never realized what he was doing to himself until that day. It practically broke my heart to know that Jack felt the need to self-mutilate to feel better.

When he realized I was there, the knife slid out of his hand and onto the floor along with a few drops of blood. I ran to him and started yelling, telling him how stupid he was and that he should have talked to me while also dragging him to the bathroom in the hallway downstairs. I pushed past Jerry on the way there, nearly knocking him down the stairs. He yelled something, but I honestly didn't even hear him. All I was focused on was helping Jack, and later smacking some sense into him. I shoved his hand under the sink and flipped on the cold water, holding it there while trying to reach the first aid kit under the shelves on the other side of the bathroom. Once the blood was rinsed off and I could control the bleeding, I covered his wrists with a towel and frantically tore open the packages to the biggest bandaids that were inside the first aid kit. After that, my heart was still racing and I could tell Jack's was, too. I was staring at him until he finally looked up at me, and when he did, I couldn't help but smack him as hard as I could across the face. He screamed 'Fuck!' and held his hand up to his face. That night, I had to tell Evelyn about what Jack had been doing. I made sure someone was keeping an eye on him while I talked to her, making sure that he didn't try to leave. Before I went into the dining room, I looked back at him and the only thing he was doing was staring down at the floor and playing with a stray piece of string from his shirt. I could tell Evelyn was worried when I saw her, but I was certain any thoughts she had didn't even compare to what I was actually going to tell her. I sat down slowly at the dining room table with her, wishing I had changed my mind about telling her. But when she looked up at me and into my eyes, I couldn't just turn around on her. Her care for Jack was stronger than my will to just forget about what he had done.

"Ma, I can't keep this from you without driving myself crazy", I started, then continued when she didn't say anything. Although, her attention was still on me. Which didn't make it any easier, "Listen, I walked in on Jack today. And..." I almost couldn't finish, but had to, "And I saw him cutting himself", her eyes widended, and I could see the strong concern in her eyes. There was a long moment of silence bfore she said anything.

"Where?" she asked, looking down at the table as she said it.

"His wrists", she closed her eyes tightly for several seconds before standing up.

"Jack?" she called in an almost hushed tone. I knew that was my cue to leave. As I walked away, I passed Jack on my way out and his way in. He looked up at me, fear and shame clear in his eyes. I looked away then, not wanting to see how much I had hurt him personally. But in the end, I knew it was for the best. He couldn't just go on doing that to himself forever. After all, Evelyn was bound to find out sooner or later, whether she had my help or not. I knew I shouldn't have, but I couldn't help but listen in. It was quiet for several seconds after Jack sat down, but soon Evelyn spoke in a very quiet tone, almost like a whisper. My hearing wasn't that great, but I was still able to hear her.

"Jack, I can't honestly tell you I know what to say to you..." she paused for a moment before continuing in a louder voice, "But why couldn't you just talk to me about this?" she wasn't yelling, but I could hear Jack's chair legs screech against the floor. It wasn't often that him and Evelyn had a heart-to-heart, but when they did, Jack seemed to turn into that little kid from what seems like so long ago.

"I don't know!" Jack yelled, his voice cracking slightly at the last word, "I just... I needed an escape. I didn't want to talk to anyone, I just wanted to feel better. If even for a little while. The feeling of the blade and the sight of blood made me feel like less of a fuck-up. I don't know why I can't just talk to people. Maybe... maybe I just don't deserve to live! Obviously I'm not worth anything!", he was nearly screaming now. I waited for more, but momentary silence filled the room before I heard muffled sobs. I peeked around the corner, watching as a close-eyed Evelyn smoothed Jack's hair and held him like a small child as he cried into her.

After that day, Jack and I had an un-spoken understanding that I needed to tell Evelyn. Him and Ma needed that kind of bonding, and I was glad I could help him in some way. Even if that wasn't the exact intention to begin with, I still felt good aferwards.


	2. What are big brothers for?

**Bobby**

A few weeks after the whole incident with Jack, everything seemed to go back to normal. Evelyn worked three days out of the week, I had a half-ass job, Jerry was a know-it-all, Angel was sleeping with some Spanish tramp we had never met- only heard of, and Jack was still the little princess of the family. On one of Ma's days off, she decided to have some sort of 'family bonding time' after dinner. It was a Friday, so we didn't have much of a curfew or bed time. In fact, Friday was one of the very few days that Evelyn let us do pretty much anything we wanted. Within reasonable circumstances, of course. Anyway, after dinner at five, Ma brought out a few dozen board games. The four of us stared at the pile of warn-out games, wondering if she actually expected us to play any of them.

"Since Jack's the youngest, he gets to choose first", mom stated a little too cheerfully for my liking. But then again, that's just the way she had always been when it came to her family being together. 

"I thought the _oldest_ went first for everything?" I scrutinized.

"Well, I do it differently, Bobby", she was still smiling, but I could tell Ma was a little dissapointed by my trying to bring down the 'happy' mood. I felt a little bad about it, but let Jack pick first. It looked for a second like he was about to complain, but closed his mouth and ended up picking out Candyland.

"Oh, are you serious?" I questioned, slumping back in my chair. 

"What?" Jack almost sounded offended. 

"I freaking _hate_ Candyland", I admitted. Mom looked over at me.

"Bobby, sit up and respect your brother", I reluctantly did as she told and sat up, wishing I were somewhere else getting hammered or something. As much as I loved my family, I almost _loathed_ spending too much time with them. It just wasn't _me_. 

Ten minutes later, I was really starting to get frusterated with Candyland.

"You're such a cheater!" I yelled, aiming my anger towards Jack.

"How am I a cheater? This is the easiest game in the world. You just happen to suck at it", Jack defended himself.

"Are you kidding me? You only picked this game 'cause you're good at it. You little fag..." I whispered the last part, but it was still heard. There was a loud gasp.

"Bobby!" Evelyn yelled, actually making me jump, "Go upstairs, now!" I ran up the stairs as fast as I could. I wasn't the kind of guy to get scared, but Evelyn could be scary when she wanted. And she was scary that night... 

I actually felt pretty bad for calling Jack that, but I was annoyed. And everyone knows I have anger issues. I'm also aware that he's not actually gay, but it's still offensive and Evelyn obviously didn't like it. Later that night at around eight o'clock, I went to Jack's room to apologize. I wasn't sure if I was aloud to or not yet, but I went anyway. After all, he is my little brother and I didn't want him to hate me or anything like that, so I knocked quietly on his door.

"It's open", he stated quietly. I don't know if it was that he sounded sad, but he definately didn't sound happy. I opened the door, trying hard not to make any unecessary noise.

"Hey, Cracker Jack", he looked up from his guitar for about a second, then looked down again. He looked upset, "Hey, man. You know I didn't mean it", no response, "Come on, man. You're my brother, you know I'd never do anything to hurt you. And you definately know I have anger issues", I laughed, but still got no response.

"Come on, Jackie. You can't just ignore me forever. I mean, why are you so upset anyway? We _both_ know you're not actually gay. Unless... you know... you are..." he finally looked up at me, "I mean, 'cause if you are, it doesn't matter. I love you, man. You're my brother", he looked down again. I was about to leave when he finally spoke up.

"I'm not gay, and I'm not mad. I just- don't understand why you always have to pick on me. I mean, why not Jerry? Or Angel? They're your brothers, too..." he trailed off. I sighed, while also trying hard not to laugh.

"Jack, listen. I only pick on _you_ because you're my little brother. I'm the oldest, so it's really only a right of passage that I get to make fun of you. It's not that I don't care; because trust me, I do. It's _because_ I care that I make fun of you. Not because I'm trying to make you feel bad. That was never my intention", I admitted. He actually smiled; even laughed a little.

"Well, what about Angel and Jerry? They're younger than you, too"

"Yeah, but they had their turns", I paused to laugh, "Besides, they aren't the _youngest_. You're the baby of the family, Jack. And nothings gonna change that. So either learn to love it, or deal with it for the rest of your life", I joked, finally getting him to _really_ smile and laugh. I laughed too, ruffling his hair with my hand.

"You feel better now, ya little fairy?" I asked, letting him know I wasn't gonna let up on him just because we had a little heart-to-heart.

"Yeah, much better", he admitted, laughing to himself.

"Alright, see ya later, kid", I said, ruffling his hair one more time before leaving. I had a hockey game to watch.


	3. Not done healing just yet

**Jeremiah**

Little Jackie. He may not be little anymore, but when he first came to Evelyn, he was as skinny as a twig. In fact, he would barely eat and reached probably up to about the middle of my chest. Just about every little noise made Jack jump, which in turn made it difficult for any one of us to get around our own home. Evelyn was very patient with him, but we can't all be saints. I tried my best to make the kid comfortable with us, but it was like taking half a baby step every time. Right off the bat, I could tell that it was going to be a long process to get him to feel safe. But Bobby made it five times harder. Whenever Bobby was home and not working, poor Jack would nearly have a heart attack. I realized that it wasn't intentional, but the way Bobby acted- and always has acted- caused more stress to Jack than was needed. Since Bobby was constantly working on his 'career' in hockey, he always had a loud hockey game on, which would cause Jack to hide in his room for basically the rest of the night. That is, until Evelyn would call him down for dinner. But even then, I could tell that all Jack wanted to do was run away. Hell, the poor kid was shaking the entire time.

The first night Jack stayed with us, I woke up at around two in the morning to loud screaming. I ran down the hall and peered around the corner into Jack's room, seeing mom rocking him back and forth on the bed, smoothing his hair while he cried into her. I almost started crying myself. I knew the kid came from a messed up background, but I hadn't realized it was that bad. After about a week of waking up in the middle of the night, everyone was starting to get a little testy; especially Bobby. One day when Angel and I came home from school, Bobby was laying on the couch with a hockey game blasting. You could tell he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and I honestly wondered if he'd just killed Jack by the look on his face.

"I am _so_ sick of that kid screaming in the middle of the night", Bobby commented suddenly. 

"He's having nightmares, Bobby. Have a little simpathy", I advised. 

"What could he _possibly_ be having nightmares about? He's eleven-fucking-years-old" 

"Did you ever think he might be having nightmares about his old life?" 

"Oh, please. _I_ never had nightmares about that. And even if I did, I wouldn't wake up screaming. Along with annoying the hell out of everyone else in the house"

"Like Ma said, he's just scared and is going to have a hard time adjusting. He's just a little kid"

"Right, Jerry. A little kid", we didn't say anything more after that, but I still felt bad for Jack. 

Dinner that night was actually pretty awkward, especially considering no one spoke for the longest time. Jack- as usual- wouldn't really eat, Bobby sat at the end of the table fuming, and Angel and I were just there. Mom tried to start a conversation at one point, but not much really happened. It just made everything even more awkward. I could tell Jack didn't like the silence since he couldn't stay still, but it probably didn't help that he most likely knew that the silence was due to him. After a full thirty minutes of just straight silence, mom seemed to get sick of it.

"Now I know it's difficult to make conversation sometimes, but this is just rediculous", she started, then stopped to look at each of us before continuing, "Boys, we aren't just going to sit here and stare off into space. If someone doesn't start talking soon, you're all going upstairs to your rooms for the rest of the night", it was never good when mom proposed a threat, but when she did, you had to take her seriously. Even though I wanted to say something myself, no one did.

"Well, if you're not going to talk, then go upstairs", Ma directed, causing everyone to get up and leave; Bobby being the first. As I rounded the corner to leave the dining room, I over-heard mom talking to Jack, "Honey, you stay here. I'm not mad at you", it was then that I wished I had said something. If I had, then Ma wouldn't have had to raise her voice, and Jack wouldn't be scared. 

As I expected, it _did_ take a long time for Jack to get used to everything in Evelyn's house. But eventually he did, and him and Bobby became very close. In fact, all of us considered him to be our brother. After six months with us, Evelyn officially adopted Jack and made him family. He was really starting to come out of his shell; he would even play some hockey with us in the winter, showing everyone on the rink that he could keep up with us. Bobby of course showed him almost everything he knew, but Jack had some skills of his own. People even started calling him 'Mini Bobby' when he was on the ice. Even though Jack could kick some serious ass in hockey, his true love was music. More than that, his guitar. On his twelfth birthday, Bobby gave Jack his old guitar that he never used. He figured if he wasn't going to use it, he might as well give it to Jack and see if he likes it. And the thing was, he really did. In fact, every time I came home from school, Jack would be upstairs playing his guitar. He was a natural. By the time he was thirteen, Jack would even sing. He was a natural at that too, which made me a little jelious. I never personally had a natural talent, but I was glad that Jack had something to occupy his time. It really made him happy. Especially if Bobby was going too far with his jokes, Jack always found playing his guitar to be an outlet.

"So Jack, you ever planning on having a band?" I decided to ask one day after school.

"I don't know, maybe. It'd be cool", he sounded disintrested, but I knew that someday he would. That night, Bobby made us go to a pick-up game with him. It was an important game for Bobby since we would be playing against a few guys who weren't exactly Bobby's biggest fans. Angel was supposed to be out with some girl, but Bobby literally _forced_ him into coming to play. Jack was excited, but Bobby almost didn't let him go. Ever since Jack came to Bobby after a nightmare when he was eleven, Bobby had been over-protective of him. 

When we got to the rink, the guys we would be playing were already there. I recognized some of them from the high school, but a few others I didn't know. Since Jack was still smaller than us and obviously younger, they laughed as soon as they saw him. He was a little tall for his age, but you would still be able to tell that he definately wasn't in high school yet.

"So I see you brought a little kid with you, huh, Mercer?" the tallest- John Malone- asked mockingly.

"He's not a little kid. And that's my brother you're talking about", Bobby answered, gritting his teeth. He always hated when someone made fun of Jack. He could do it himself, but if it was someone outside the family, he got pissed very easily.

"Let's play some damn hockey", Bobby finished, skating out onto the ice.

"Let's just see if he can take it", John commented silently, clearly refering to Jack. I knew Jack could handle himself just fine, but Bobby was a different story. He would no doubt try to keep Jack from getting too into it, but Jack had a tendancy to go his own way when he really wanted to.

About twenty minutes into the game, we had a total of ten points while the other guys had a total of three. That was actually mostly do to Jack. Every chance he got, Jack would push someone out of the way and score a point. He definately got his agressivness from Bobby, and used it to his advantage. In the final few minutes of the game, Jack was skating towards our goal while Bobby handled the puck. When Bobby was about to pass it to him for the score, I watched as Jack accidentally ran into one of the other guys. I heard him screaming, obviously in pain. Bobby, Angel, and I skated over to him as fast as we could. When we got there, there was blood everywhere and Jack had a huge gash across his cheek from the corner of his eye and down to his chin. I connected the dots, looking over at the other guys' skate, which had blood dripping from it. Bobby followed my gaze, letting go of Jack's head for a second to confront the guy.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he yelled.

"The kid ran into me!" he was lucky we didn't know who he was, otherwise Bobby would be relentless in school. If someone messed with a Mercer brother, they'd never hear the end of it. No matter how long ago it was, Bobby always got his revenge for some problem one of us had. They continued to argue until Jack wouldn't stop bleeding as profusely as he was.

"Bobby, we have to get him to a hospital. Now!" I interupted. Bobby- being Bobby- kicked the guy in the stomach and then helped Angel and I with Jack. We got him up and out to Bobby's car after taking his skates off. On our way to the hospital, I was franitcally trying to get the blood flow to decrease, but was having a hard time doing so.

"Could you drive a little faster?" Angel complained.

"I'm driving as fast as I fucking can, Angel!" Bobby yelled, nearly ramming into another car. 

"Watch out!" I yelled, holding up Jack's head in the back seat. 

"Shut up, Jerry!" Bobby yelled back, swerving into on-coming traffic. By the time we got there, there were a million people in the parking lot, so Bobby stopped right in front of the hospital entrance and opened the back door. I offered to help him with Jack, but he acted as if he never even heard me and dragged Jack out of the car. He had his arm around Jack's waiste and we all walked inside. As soon as I opened the door, Bobby started yelling. 

"Someone get a fucking doctor!" everyone in the waiting area looked up at him, but he didn't care. The only thing on his mind was getting Jack to a doctor. A nurse came up to us, no sign of worry on her face. That made me kind of mad, for some reason.

"Please, sir. Take a seat and a doctor will be right with you", she told Bobby as calmly as she could. I almost started yelling myself.

"Are you fucking blind? My brother's bleeding to death here! Get a fucking doctor!" instead of waiting for a reply, Bobby started walking past her, "You know what, fuck it. I'll get one myself", Bobby seemed to block out the nurses warning as he continued down a random hall. Angel and I ran after him, laughing to ourselves. That was typical Bobby.

When we got home, Jack had thirty stitches and he looked like something from a scary movie.

"Do you have _any_ idea how close that blade came to your eye?" Bobby asked, taking a seat on the couch.

"Yes, I'm aware. But I'm fine", Jack replied.

"Yeah, real fine. Just look at your face! God, Ma's gonna kill me..." and was he right; if looks could kill...

"Robert Mercer, what did I tell you about putting your brother into dangerous situations?" Ma started yelling as soon as she saw Jack's face and got the story.

"It wasn't a dangerous situation! At least it wasn't supposed to be"

"I don't care. The point is that he _did_ get hurt and he shouldn't have!"

"Mom, it's just a scratch. Big deal"

"Big deal? Big deal! It _is_ a big deal, Bobby! And that is _not_ just a scratch. You're... you're grounded! All of you!" after that day, it took a _long_ time before Bobby let Jack back on the ice. And an even longer time for his face to heal.


End file.
